No fewer than 1,537 candidates from 28 political parties are expected to contest elections for the 469 seats in the National Assembly in Saturday’s national elections, available information shows.
Details released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) show that 747 are contesting elections for the 109 seats in the Senate and 1,790 are contesting for the 360 seats in the House of Representatives.
Among the Senate election candidates are 126 women and 621 men, while 254 women are among those contesting to be members of the House of Representatives.
A breakdown of the list shows that no female candidate is contesting election into the Senate in Edo, Gombe, Jigawa, kastina, Kebbi, Nasarawa, Ondo and Yobe states.
There is one female candidate each aspiring to be senators in Abia, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Benue, Borno, Ekiti, Kano, Kogi and Taraba states.
Overall, in the Senate election, Abia has 20, Adamawa, 22, Anambra, 43, Bauch, 15, Bayelsa, 10, Benue, 10, Borno, 19, Cross-River, 12, and Akwa-Ibom, 12.
Delta has 35 candidates for the Senate, Ebonyi, 18, Ekiti ,13, Enugu, 27, Federal Capital Territory, 11, Gombe, 12, Imo, 35, Jigawa, 10, Kaduna, 18, Kano, 21, Kastina, 13, Kebbi, 25, Kogi, 22, Kwara, 29, and Lagos, 20.
Edo, Nasarawa, Niger and Rivers states have 16 candidates each for the Senate, Ogun. 29, Ondo, 20, Osun, 30, Oyo ,18, Plateau, 12, Rivers, 16, Sokoto, 44, Taraba ,13, Yobe, seven, and Zamfara, 38.
While no woman is contesting the elections into the House of Representatives in Benue, there is one each in Borno, Edo and Kastina states.
In the Presidential Election, which also holds on Saturday, a woman is among the 14 candidates, while four women are vice-presidential candidates